


Natural Selection

by didsomeonesaybioshock



Series: The Many Random Adventures of Blackbird and Falcon [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Callon saves baby sea turtles, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Oregon - Freeform, Slow Burn, Walks On The Beach, sea turtles, the slowest f ucking burn, this takes place after my huge fic cause original fallon would never act like this lol, what else could you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 14:55:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13056288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/didsomeonesaybioshock/pseuds/didsomeonesaybioshock
Summary: Fallon and Castiel finish up a hunt in an Oregon beach town. Castiel gets an idea.





	Natural Selection

       The last vamp nest had taken its toll on then.

  
       Most times, it was a cakewalk. Castiel would smite a few; Fallon would start swinging her machete around. Save some vics; reunite a couple families. Easy-peasy. But most times the nest was small-ball. Not this time.

  
       Gold Beach was on her side of the states. Maybe six hours from her hometown in Oregon. It was a tiny little beach town. About as small as Lakeview. She’d never been, but she’d heard plenty of stories. Tight-knit community. Good people. Not a lot of trouble to find out there.

  
       Which was why the idea of the mother of all vamp-hives being located no more than half a mile from the town marker was a bit shocking.

  
       They’d just gotten through talking with a dad whose daughter they’d just pulled from the nest. No more than fifteen years old. The girl was damn near cold by the time they’d cut their way through the abandoned warehouse. If Fallon had been hunting alone, she’d be delivering a dead body to his door step. Lucky for the girl, there was at least one angel that still gave a shit about humans. God only knows why.

  
       The town’s main road actually ran alongside the ocean. If you pulled onto the shoulder and jumped from the car, your feet would hit sand. White, fluffy sand. Like a cloud on a warm summer day. Not like the swamp-muck shit they had over near Hat Creek. It looked so much different than those sappy movies they played on TV. It was the first time she’d seen it in person.

  
       They passed by one spot in particular on their way out of town. A giant boulder sat right at the lip of the shore. Every time the tide rolled in the waves would crash into it, forcing white spray in every direction in the most dramatic fashion. Then it would slide over the stone and weave through the cracks back to the sand. Over and over again. Roll, crash, slide. Roll, crash, slide. It was kind of relaxing to watch.

  
       Castiel slowed the truck down and veered off the asphalt, the tires hitting gravel along the shoulder. He insisted on driving them back to Lebanon since she’d gotten them there. And now she was paying the price. “What are you doing?” She groaned.

  
       He wiggled the shifter into neutral and fumbled with the emergency brake. The truck jolted a bit. He’d gotten good with shifting but parking a manual still wasn’t his specialty. “Stopping.”

  
       “Yeah, not very well.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, why are we stoppin’? It’s damn near dark and we still haven’t cleared the cliffs yet.”

  
       “Just because you cannot see five feet in front of you does not mean my eyesight is poor.” He climbed out and shut the door, striding around the front of the truck in that wide-leg stride he always did. Arms out slightly. Head bobbing up and down. She jumped out of the cab and planted her boots in the gravel. “My vision is just as clear at night as it is during the day.”

  
       Fallon scoffed. “My eyes work just fine. Just don’t like drivin’ mountain roads in the dead of night.”

  
       “So you allowed that vampire to nearly tear out your jugular vein back at the warehouse.” He tilted his head to the side and raised a brow. “It wasn’t because you could not see nor hear him. I was forced to come to your rescue just for fun, correct?”

  
       The creep had popped up out of nowhere. She’d spent too long making sure one vamp was dead and not long enough trying to figure out where the next one was. Too much noise, not enough light. Her ears had still been ringing from the last blood sucker to hear another snarl behind her back. She was seconds away from becoming the next Dracula before Castiel plucked him out of thin air. “He’d’ve gotten his share. Was just givin’ him a bit of false hope for his last few seconds on Earth.”

  
       Castiel chuckled and shook his head. Then he started out into the sand. His dress shoes left imprints with every step.

  
       “What are you doing?” She asked for the second time. He knew how much she hated being ignored. Drove her crazy. Why did he insist on doing that? He turned back and smiled. The sunset cast a vibrant light around his head like a halo. She forgot how to breathe for one long-ass second.

  
       “I think we have earned a moment of peace.”

  
       The air was even thicker near the water’s edge. Castiel had suggested she take off her boots. She had suggested for him to shut his trap. But then he’d given her that look. The one where his stare glazed over and turned doe-like. His chapped lips puckered slightly. Dean called it the ‘puppy dog pout.’ Fallon called it the ‘bitch’s way out.’ But there she was, holding her boots in her hand, bare feet walking beside a shoeless Castiel along the damp shoreline. She’d say no next time. She swore on it.

  
       They were quiet for a while. The scene spoke for itself. The slap of the waves against the sand was something she never thought she’d enjoy, the white foam tickling the thin layer of skin on top of her feet as it rushed over. They had both rolled their pants up but the water still nicked the fabric a couple times. The sand squished between her toes with every step. The salty wind blew through her hair and pulled loose strands from underneath her bandana. The air was like a thick blanket draped over their shoulders. For the first time in a long while, she couldn’t find one thing to bitch about. She let her eyes close for a minute while she breathed it all in. But when she opened them again, something caught her eye.

  
       “The hell’s that?” She pointed at a deep hole farther up from the lip of the shore. There weren’t many holes out here, just dents and footprints, but this one stood out. Castiel looked down at her as she strode toward it, her right leg dragging a bit more with her increased speed.

  
       “A hole.” He said. He wasn’t wrong. It was what was inside of it that had her damn near splitting apart at the seams.

  
       “Holy shit.” She stared down at the hole. Inside were ten or twelve baby turtles.

  
       Baby. Freaking. Turtles.

  
       Real living and breathing (did turtles even breath?) animals. Not the little bath toys you see kids throwing around in a tub. Not the cartoon ones from that ‘Finding Nemo’ show. No, no. These were the real deal. The whole nine yards. The turtles were scampering into each other like bumper cars, desperate for a way out. But the hole was too deep. And they were tiny little things. They flapped their fins like they were trying to fly.

  
       “Sea turtles.” Castiel confirmed, his knees hitting the sand a foot from the nest. Fallon followed suit. “They are attempting to make their way to the ocean to begin their life cycle.”

  
       “But they can’t get out.” Fallon waved her hand at them. What kind of mother sets her kids up for failure like that? “How’s a sea turtle s’posed to live if it can’t even get to the sea?”

  
       “Some nests do not survive the first stage.” Castiel sighed. “Charles Darwin was correct in his studies. Natural selection plays a primitive role in this world.”

  
       “So, what, we just let ‘em die?”

  
       “It is best not to interfere with the nest. It could confuse them further.”

  
       Castiel made to get up. For a very rare moment, she actually felt her heart clench. A heavy weight right on her chest. Her eyes burned in their sockets. Fuck Charles Darwin.

  
       Her hands dug into the sand, breaking away the lip of the nest and building some kind of ramp with her fingers. A few of the baby turtle’s flippers grazed her skin as she worked. They felt like gently worn leather with a soft finish. The sand clumped underneath her fingernails.

  
       “Fallon, what are you doing?”

  
       “I might be a cold-hearted bitch, but I ain’t gonna watch these turtles become some bird’s evening snack.” They were moving now, flapping a bit more wildly at the foreign hands working around them. “You gonna stand there and supervise or you gonna get down here and help me?”

  
       For a second she didn’t think he’d do it. Castiel had a big heart, but he was also methodical. There was a rhyme or reason to everything. Natural selection definitely fell into that category. But no more than a minute later he was down next to her, scooping sand out of the nest like his life depended on it. They broke the nest wall with a couple more handfuls. Then the race began.

  
       They moved quick after that. Waving their fins like mad in a dash to get to the water. Little ripples of sand trailed behind them as they swam through the grains. Fallon and Castiel had to actually move out of the way to avoid their frantic crawl. One after another, each one followed the next. It was a clumsy dance. Not very graceful. But if it wasn’t the prettiest waltz she’d ever seen. Her smile widened as she watched them run, their tiny little bodies blindly wading over the land until they finally hit home. They flopped a bit in the wake before disappearing under the water. She hardly noticed the tear sliding down her cheek as it all unfolded in front of her.

  
       If this had been a year ago, she would’ve kept on walking. Told herself the same bullshit Castiel had argued about natural selection. Or something close to it. If they couldn’t make it on land, how were they supposed to survive in the sea? Better to struggle on your own than to rely on an extra hand to help out. Can’t count on anyone. But now, sitting with her toes dug into the sand, her blonde hair stained with vamp blood and the sea spray in her face she felt something… different. That maybe, sometimes, people needed help. Like those turtles needed help getting to the ocean. Like that girl needed help from that vamp nest. Like she had needed help all those months ago.

  
       Her eyes fell to Castiel. He was watching the turtles crawl across the sand, his lip tugged up in one corner. His eyes shone a brighter blue than the ocean stretched out in front of them. But that’s how they always were. Bold and deep, a never-ending pool that always seemed to see right through her bullshit. The same ones that stared right through her on Mount Nebo when she let him heal her for the first time. The same ones that stared back at her when she asked for a socket wrench to tighten the Chevelle’s lug nuts. Every monster, every case, every car ride worth remembering: it all came down to those bright blue eyes. They’d been there through everything.  
He noticed the tears. And when he raised one of those callused hands to wipe them away with his thumb, she didn’t even stop him. Her cheek burned hot under his touch. But it was the sweetest burn she’d ever felt. She leaned into his hand and his chest stopped mid-rise under his suit jacket. His lips parted. She licked her own.

  
       She couldn’t remember telling her body to move. She was sure she hadn’t. She didn’t need to. Like pure instinct her lips landed on his and the entire world stopped spinning. Every moment came tumbling down. Every sleepless night he’d helped her through. Every time he’d saved her ass. Every time she’d saved his. It all crashed down like the waves on the shore as their lips moved as one. When they broke apart it was only a few inches, breathing each other’s air and staring at the other like they were a lifeline. His eyes shone down on her like a second moon. She was bathed in his glow.

  
       “Hey, Blackbird.” You could hardly hear it above the waves. He let out a breathless laugh and slid his fingers into her hair. Her bandana slid off somewhere behind her. His other hand found her neck and traced her pulse point with his thumb. Breathing became difficult. When he answered it was a whisper against her lips, his eyes half-closed and his head tilted a bit to the side. The tip of his nose grazed her own and she sighed.

  
       “Hey, Falcon.”


End file.
